This publication – edited and introduced by his biographer Matthew Spender – provides an intimate portrait of the Arshile Gorky.


The paintings of Armenian-American painter Arshile Gorky (c.1904–1948) proved nothing less than transformative to twentieth-century art in the US and beyond. Shaped by his experience of fleeing the Armenian Genocide, Gorky filtered influences of Impressionism and Post-impressionism, producing vigorous compositions that were sometimes abstract, other times figurative or a mixture of the two. In this volume, Gorky's gradual reception by the art world is seen obliquely through interviews and personal accounts, many of which are previously unpublished.


Accompanying the letters and key illustrations, an introduction by Gorky biographer Matthew Spender focuses on the artist's postwar influence and continued relevance.